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I am looking at making a hardcore build on fallout but I would like some advice on the build. So my main skills will be Survival, Repair and Barter. Survival for making new foods, Repair for item repair and barter to purchase and sell items better. So I would like to ask first off, which is better generally for weapons, bullets or energy? I was thinking bullets but I do enjoy energy weapons. Next up is special, where should I distribute my points based on my skills?

Any advice?

Thanks!

XDroidie626
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  • What do you mean they are your 'main' skills? What about combat skills? – Nelson Aug 09 '15 at 22:49
  • Main skills are the ones that I specified so barter, survival and repair, compared to other skills which will be guns and lock pick, combat of course will play a bit role, but they are not my main skills required, I was focusing on rpg elements kind of more than pure combat – XDroidie626 Aug 09 '15 at 23:00
  • Re: special/skills: All of them. Re: Hardmode – Mazura Aug 11 '15 at 06:17
  • @XDroidie626 If those are the ones you added 15 to at the start, those are called tag skills. You tagged them. You can play through this game without killing anyone at all if you want. – DCShannon Oct 28 '15 at 21:19
  • Where you should distribute your special points and which type of guns are better should really be separate questions. – DCShannon Oct 28 '15 at 21:20

2 Answers2

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Other than raising some survival for more water and food effects, the game basically plays the same. The 'hardcore' portion means only couple things:

  • ammo has weight
  • need to keep water/food
  • followers can die

At the end of the day, you'll simply fast travel to your base, usually Goodsprings with multiple external containers, mail box, workbench, nearby camp site with bed, rad free water source, and restock.

Sleep, eat, drink, restock, and then you are off.

Nelson
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  • My first play-through was hardcore. I have played subsequent times as non-hardcore. "Hardcore" is actually very annoying and really adds nothing to the game. Followers being very stupid and charging Cazadors, back when the poison will kill them with no chance for survival, made the encounter very, very irritating. – Nelson Aug 22 '15 at 11:17
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I always play hardcore. The game is laughably easy otherwise. I really miss the mode when I'm playing Fallout 3.

Here are some major differences:

  • You cannot heal your limbs with stimpacks. You need to use Doctor's Bags, actual doctors, Hydra, or sleep in an owned bed. This makes doctor's bags significantly more important, which matters because they have weight, unlike stimpacks. This also makes Adamantium Skeleton much more useful.

  • Healing takes time. Nothing heals you instantly. You will need to notice when you are being damaged and start healing then, as once you are critically injured it is too late. This makes skills like Medicine and Survival more important, as they allow you to heal more quickly. Different healing sources stack, so it can be useful to carry several different kinds of healing, like healing powder, bitter drink, sunset sasparilla, and so on. This way, you can eat a whole bunch of items at once and heal more quickly than you are being damaged.

  • Ammo has weight. This is huge. You need to start weighing the value of ammo against other things you could carry, as it's not free to carry. This makes various perks like Vigilant Recycler, Hand Loader, and Pack Rat more useful.

  • You need to eat, drink, and sleep. This gives you a reason to carry food and water, which are just redundant with stimpacks otherwise. Your thirst can go up pretty quickly if you don't stop and drink from a sink or fountain occasionally, as this zeros out your thirst meter. I am aware of where clean water sources can be found, and make a point of grabbing a drink when I'm near one. I rarely suffer from sleep deprivation, but will often grab an hour of sleep when I walk by an unowned bedroll to maintain.

  • Followers can die. Followers are still exceptionally powerful, but you need to manage them at least a little bit by giving them equipment and stimpacks. I have played through the game on hardcore without killing a single person or animal by letting my follower do all the work. This can make Spray and Pray and Ferocious Loyalty more effective, especially if you're using explosives or Meltdown.

So you don't need to make a whole different build for hardcore, but a few perks become more useful and you need to engage in additional resource management.

DCShannon
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  • I admittedly haven't tested this or looked this up, but I'm pretty certain that in hardcore, sleeping in a bed will not heal limb damage. – PVAL Oct 28 '15 at 23:05
  • @PVAL I would have agreed, but I've played through New Vegas 3 times in the past two months (can't wait for 4...), and I swear sleeping in my bed in Novac has healed limb damage. Not crippled limbs, just the accumulated damage from some adventuring. But like I said, I haven't doublechecked this scientifically. If you do, please get back to me. – DCShannon Oct 28 '15 at 23:58
  • @PVAL Just looked it up. From the Fallout wikia: "Sleeping will only heal crippling if it is in an "owned" bed. " – DCShannon Oct 29 '15 at 00:00